Kepler Mission Options

[imran]

This NASA Discovery mission is to be launched in June 2008 and will search for Earth-size and smaller planets. Launch was originally scheduled in 2007 but delayed by 8 months due to "funding constraints".

Here's the official web site:
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/

[imipak]

I hope, _hope_, /HOPE!/ that you're right. Until Kepler's safely in orbit without mishap, though, I can't think of those as anything but potential possibilities. I'm a devout rationalist, but events like this really help me understand why, and how, superstitions develop. Pucker factor: 0.4...

I'm trying to persuade a colleague at work with a latent interest in UMSF to wake his kids up to watch the launch. He expresses what he thinks is a rational aversion to spending money on U?MSF in general, but I can tell he secretly digs the "cool" factor. I'm guessing his kids are his weak point!